Oil stocks push to fresh 52-week high

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Oil and gas indexes surged to fresh 52-week highs Wednesday, lifted late in the session by a big rebound in crude oil prices.

The Amex Oil Index
$XOI
tracked sharply higher throughout the day, closing with a 2.1 percent gain at 819.90.

Topping percentage gainers was Kerr-McGee
KMG, -1.30%
up $2.90 a share at $71.62, a 4.2 percent gain for the session and new high for the year.

Dow Jones Industrials component ExxonMobil
XOM, -0.89%
third most active issue on the New York Stock Exchange, ended the session up $1.56, or 2.7 percent, at $58.48 -- an all-time high.

The Amex Natural Gas Index
$XNG
handed in an even better performance, finishing up 3.1 percent at 316.21, also a 52-week high, led by El Paso's 77-cent, 6.4 percent rise to $12.54.

The rally was kicked off by an overnight spike in crude oil futures on reports of a mystery explosion in Iran not far from where the country is developing a nuclear power plant.

Crude futures backed down as subsequent reports traced the blast to a construction crew but resumed their rally late in the day on renewed concerns over a possible move by OPEC to curb production, propelling the New York Mercantile Exchange's March crude oil contract to $48.33 a barrel, a three-week high. See Futures Movers.

The move in oil and gas stock carried through to the oil services sector, with the Philadelphia Oil Service Index
OSX, -2.09%
finishing the day on 2.6 percent jump to 138.72, making it a 52-week high hat trick for all three energy indexes.

Helping lift the oil services sector was a Deutsche Bank upgrade of giant offshore rig operator Transocean
RIG, -2.83%
to "buy" from "hold", echoing Transocean's own assessment Tuesday that the demand for deepwater offshore drilling vessels looks strong in the year ahead. See full story.

Shares in the Houston-based company were up 5.1 percent at $48.45, yet another one-year high hit Wednesday.

Intraday Data provided by SIX Financial Information and subject to terms of use. Historical and current end-of-day data provided by SIX Financial Information. All quotes are in local exchange time. Real-time last sale data for U.S. stock quotes reflect trades reported through Nasdaq only. Intraday data delayed at least 15 minutes or per exchange requirements.